Research and Development Working Group (RDWG) is a working group of the W3C Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI), to increase the incorporation of accessibility considerations into research on web technologies, and to identify projects researching web accessibility and suggest research questions that may contribute to new projects. More information is available in:

RDWG maintains an annotated catalog of research topics related to web accessibility. The catalog includes a combination of research topics with short-, medium-, and long-term perspectives to help advance accessibility for people with disabilities. Potential topics include but are not limited to:

cognitive disabilities

virtual reality on the Web

social networking

online education

digital broadcasting

telemedicine

mobile Web

augmented reality

digital rights management

web accessibility in less developed regions

internationalization

This catalog is collaboratively maintained using the publicly available RDWG wiki. Write access to this wiki is currently limited to RDWG participants but comments, suggestions, and feedback is welcome from anyone; please write to public-wai-rd@w3.org (a publicly archived mailing list).

RDWG teleconference seminars bring together people interested in a particular aspect of web accessibility to advance research in that area. For example, a seminar might discuss current research, synthesize ideas, and provide a roadmap for future work on a specific topic. RDWG selects these topics for exploration from the RDWG catalog of research topics based on:

Relative impact on people with disabilities;

Relative impact on advancing web accessibility;

Currency of the topic and impact on on-going work;

Readiness of RDWG for leading the particular topic.

RDWG plans to hold 3-4 teleconference seminars per year. These seminars are free of cost and anyone may submit to participate. Generally participants will be invited based on peer-review of their paper submission. The proceedings and any consolidated findings from the seminars will be publicly available.

Each RDWG teleconference seminar will include a planning committee (of usually 1-3 people) from the Working Group, and a scientific committee which may include external volunteers who have expertise in the particular topic for exploration. RDWG Work Plan provides further information about the timelines and organization of RDWG teleconference seminars.

RDWG plans to develop consolidated findings from RDWG teleconference seminars in form of W3C Working Group (WG) Notes (type of W3C Techical Reports). These WG Notes will provide more in-depth description of the research topic and questions, references to relevant related work, conclusions drawn from the teleconference seminar and any follow-up discussions, as well as recommendations for further action including additional research and development activities.

RDWG publications such as teleconference seminar proceedings, W3C Working Group (WG) Notes, and other teleconference seminar results will have the following writership:

Editors - a core group of (~1-3) people who have shepherded the development of the publication through the process and led it to completion;

Authors - anyone who has contributed written substantial content such as a section, appendix, or other supporting material that has been included in the publication;

Contributors - everyone else who has contributed, such as by taking part in the discussions, but not having written any substantial parts of the publication.

When referring to the entire publication, editors will be the only names in the editors listing (in order of contribution) of the reference, and the first names in the author list. The author list will be formed by these editors names and the rest of the authors following in alphabetical order. Finally, contributors will be listed in a section or appendix, and will be implied by 'et al' being appended to the authors list.

When referring to a formally authored section or appendix (think book chapter), the editors will be the only names in the editors listing (in order of contribution). The author list will be formed by the authors of that particular part in order of contribution. Finally, contributors will be listed in a sub-section, and will be implied by 'et al' being appended to the authors list.